SBIR Phase II: Grid Computing for Energy Exploration and Development

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将开发一个网格环境，在这个环境中，地理上分散的用户可以利用异构的本地资源快速访问、可视化和解释大型多维地震数据集。拟议的工作将把第一阶段的原型转化为生产就绪的商业质量软件，并在三维地震数据上进行演示。第二阶段项目的关键技术创新是（1）多分辨率数据可视化工具，（2）数据暂存工具，以及（3）支持网格上协作可视化和数据分析的多通道协作工具。拟议的技术将允许多个用户共享多维网格分散数据集并与之互动，同时查看独立的多个渲染图，其分辨率和带宽与其本地显示和网络能力相称。所提出的技术将通过实现几个网格服务和一个虚拟文件系统，使网格部署的数据集出现在本地的用户。该实现包括大部分技术任务，并利用中间件。第二阶段项目的直接成果将是一个版本的互联网地震处理生产软件（INSP），具有远程可视化、数据分级和网格上地震图像的协作分析的专门功能。第二阶段项目的最终目标是一个商业网格支持的软件产品，提供科学数据、服务、计算能力和按需可视化，不仅适用于石油和天然气工业，而且适用于更广泛的应用领域，例如地理信息系统、教育、医学成像和战场管理。该产品将突破可做事情的极限，并为新的业务模式做出全面贡献，网格的出现使之成为可能，使企业能够专注于其核心竞争力，并依赖其他实体提供支持网格的上下文技术，而不会妨碍其主要目标。第二阶段的成果将是网格的商业实现和利用，以及迄今为止主要用于学术和研究应用的工具包。这项技术将首先在一个具有重要战略意义的经济部门实现商业化，即开发新能源。具体到美国的能源需求，这种高端信息技术在经济和国家重要性领域的独特应用最终将在极其复杂的地质条件下开辟新的勘探场所，导致新的发现，并减少美国对进口石油的依赖。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a grid-enabled environment where large multidimensional seismic data sets can be rapidly accessed, visualized, and interpreted by geographically dispersed users with heterogeneous local resources. The proposed work will transform the Phase I prototype into production-ready commercial quality software, and demonstrate it on 3-D seismic data. The key technical innovations of the Phase II project are (1) a multi-resolution data visualizer, (2) a data-staging tool, and (3) a multi-channel collaboration tool to support collaborative visualization and data analysis on the grid. The proposed technology will allow multiple users to share and interact with multidimensional grid-dispersed data sets, while viewing independent multiple renderings with resolutions and bandwidths commensurate to their local display and network capabilities. The proposed technology will be enabled by implementing several grid services, and a virtual file system, that make grid deployed data sets appear local to the user. This implementation comprises the bulk of the technical tasks, and leverages the middleware. The immediate outcome of the Phase II project will be a version of Internet Seismic Processing production software (INSP) with specialized features for remote visualization, data staging, and collaborative analysis of seismic images on the grid.The ultimate objective of the Phase II project is a commercial grid-enabled software product providing scientific data, services, computing power, and visualization on demand, not only to the oil and gas industry but to a much wider range of application areas, such as geographic information systems, education, medical imaging, and battlefield management. The product will push the limits of what can be done, and fully contribute to a new business paradigm, made possible by the advent of the grid, allowing businesses to concentrate on their core competencies and rely on other entities for grid-enabled context technologies, without deterring from their primary objectives. The outcome of Phase II will be a commercial implementation and utilization of the grid, and the toolkit, which up until now, has been used mostly in academic and research applications. This technology will first be commercialized in a strategically important economic sector; namely, for the exploration of new energy resources. Specific to U.S. energy needs, this unique application of high end information technology to an area of economic and national importance will ultimately open up new exploration venues in extremely complicated geological conditions, leading to new discoveries, and decreasing US dependence on imported oil.